What the Papers Say, Sept. 6, 2013

Kommersant

1. Svetlana Mentyukova article headlined "Law-enforcers invited to fish" says that the State Duma's committee on natural resources, nature use and ecology has asked the Federal Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office to put an end to illegal activities of Chinese and Korean vessels in the Russian fishing sector; pp 1, 10 (534 words).

2. Sergei Sobolev et al. report headlined "Pipe calling" says that Mikhail Lesin, an influential official of the past 20 years, who was dismissed from the then President Medvedev administration, may replace the current head of Gazprom-media, Russia's biggest media holding company; pp 1, 10 (738 words).

6. Ivan Safronov article headlined "Sea battle by new rules" says that Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov has held a meeting to discuss military ship building where he called on for revising drastically the relations between military structures and the ship building industry; p 2 (596 words).

8. Sergei Goryashko article headlined "Muscovites took no notice of debates" says that polls have suggested that televised debates of mayoral candidates were of little interest for Muscovites as only 0.5 percent of Moscow residents watched to the end the most popular round of debates on Aug. 16; p 4 (559 words).

9. Maria Yefimova and Olga Kuznetsova article headlined "Islam targeted against Muslim Brotherhood" says that as the Egyptian Armed Forces are split and refuse to use force against the Muslim Brotherhood. The military command has asked religious leaders to talk sense into those with second thoughts; p 5 (446 words).

11. Yelena Chernenko article headlined "Numbers employed for war with Syria" says that striving to convince the Congress to vote for a strike against Syria U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stated that 34 countries were against Syrian President Bashar Assad. A Russian diplomatic official referred to the statement as "wishful thinking"; p 5 (613 words).

12. Anna Solodovnikova and Svetlana Mentyukova article headlined "Economic war paused" says that Moscow's stance on the scandal over the arrest of Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner remains moderate. Even the threat of limiting oil supplies to Belarus may not be carried out as Russian oil companies strongly oppose the idea; p 7, 9 (624 words).

14. Mikhail Serov and Olga Mordyushenko article headlined "Gazprom goes second round" says that at the G20 summit Gazprom has signed another interim agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation, once again failing to come to terms on gas price; p 9 (512 words).

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

1.Vladimir Mukhin article headlined "Soft sequester of defense budget" says that Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has announced plans to cut the expenditures of ministries and other bodies of power by 5 percent for the next three years. The Defense Ministry's budget may be cut even more which has already sparked certain clashes between the defense and finance ministries; pp 1-2 (950 words).

2. Alexandra Samarina article headlined "Russian election law to be amended in autumn" says that the State Duma is expected to revise laws on elections during its autumn session as the Kremlin has been seriously considering the cancellation of municipal filters and the return of electoral party blocs; pp 1, 3 (1, 500 words).

3. Tatyana Ivzhenko article headlined "Ukrainian mercenaries fighting against Assad?" says that the Syrian ambassador to Ukraine has stated at a news conference in Kiev that mercenaries from Ukraine are fighting against the official regime in Syria which made the Ukrainian authorities launch a probe into activities of several Islamist centers in the Crimea; pp 1, 7 (1, 100 words).

4. Sergei Kulikov article headlined "Finance Ministry working by feel" says that as budget revenues are dropping Finance Ministry's officials are making contradictory statements on the ministry's financial plans. Meanwhile, Chinese experts predict that Russia is to face a period of instability and economic slowdown; pp 1, 4 (1, 200 words).

5. Igor Naumov article headlined "GDP crawling down via wires" says that despite the authorities' claims that economic recession does not threaten Russia statistics of electricity consumption and volumes of cargo traffic in the first eight months of the year show that the risk of recession is extremely high; pp 1, 4 (850 words).

8. Editorial headlined "Putin conservative?" says that although President Putin called himself a conservative, a pragmatist with a conservative inclination, in an interview with the Associated Press and Channel One his economic practice qualifies him as a left-wing politician; p 2 (471 words).

9. Alexei Gorbachev and Vladislav Maltsev article headlined "Protests to increase after election" says that at a news conference Moscow mayoral hopeful Alexei Navalny talked about a protest that will be staged if he is not content with the outcome of the mayoral election; p 3 (808 words).

10. Anastasy Bashkatova article headlined "Gas PR-event" says that although Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation have signed another agreement on gas supplies to China at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg the key issue, the gas price, is still in the air. Experts do not rule out that out of geopolitical reasons Gazprom may give in and begin supplying gas below cost; p 4 (1,122 words).

11. Maria Bondarenko article headlined "Stavropol Region demands status of Russian republic" says that the first Congress of Slavic People of Stavropol is going to demand that the Stavropol region be declared a republic; p 6 (588 words).

12. Viktory Panfilova article headlined "Rahmon waits for Kremlin's approval" says that State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin's visit to Tajikistan set for early September has been postponed till October. Experts comment that Moscow is waiting for Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to fulfil his promise that the parliament will ratify the agreement on the Russian military base in autumn; p 7 (720 words).

13. Yevgeny Novikova article headlined "Arab countries to pay for bombing Damascus" says that ahead of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg Moscow and Washington continued exchanging conflicting opinions on who used chemical weapons in Syria. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is split over the draft resolution permitting a military operation against Bashar Assad's regime; p 8 (825 words).

14. Yury Panyev article headlined "G20 summit: Politics instead of economics" says that the Syrian crisis has moved in the spotlight of the G20 summit; p 8 (748 words).

3. Editorial headlined "Chilean miracle" contemplates whether representatives of the state should apologize for the mistakes or crimes committed by their predecessors like judges in Chile did and says that such apologies are a certain guarantee that the mistakes and crimes will not be repeated. Conversely, unwillingness of officials, judges and law-enforcers to apologize for lawlessness and their striving to preserve symbols, structure and powers of repressive law-enforcement agencies reflects attempts to put themselves above the law and threatens the development of the society; pp 1, 6 (365 words).

5. Ilya Klishin article headlined "Maximal re-tweet: Why September is no December" says that if protests in Moscow do take place they will not resemble the ones in Bolotnaya Ploshchad (square) at all; p 7 (793 words).

6. Polina Khimshiashvili article headlined "'Syria on everybody's mind'" says that leaders of the G20 nations are locked in a divisive debate over Syria, even though it is not on the official agenda of the summit in St. Petersburg; p 2 (485 words).

7. Lily Biryukova article headlined "Integrator Surkov" says that Vladislav Surkov may deal with social and economic issues in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well as interaction with Ukraine and Georgia after presidential aide Tatyana Golikova takes office as head of the Audit Chamber; p (589 words).

8. Editorial headlined "'Syrian G20" says that the G20 summit may provide an opportunity to prevent a military operation against Syria and President Vladimir Putin is the one who can get most political mileage from it; p 6 (348 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

1. Kira Latukhina article headlined "Multiplied by 20" looks at bilateral meetings President Putin had on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg; pp 1-2 (1,300 words).

3. Alexander Mikhaylov article headlined "Left-wing against" says that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is launching a campaign aimed at depriving President Obama of the title of Nobel Prize winner over his plans to begin a military operation against Syria; p 5 (500 words).

4. Yury Gavrilov article headlined "Missiles without notification" says that the Russian Defense Ministry has warned the U.S. and Israel against new missile launches in the Mediterranean; p 8 (410 words).

5. Yevgeny Shestakov article headlined "One strike for seven" says that only seven countries of the EU have supported a military operation against Syria without a resolution of the UN Security Council; p 8 (600 words).

6. Vyacheslav Prokofyev interview with the French National Assembly deputy and deputy chairman of the party Union in Support of Popular Movement Thierry Mariani headlined "Hollande trapped" where he slams the French president's support for a military operation against Syria; p 8 (450 words).

Izvestia

1. Dmitry Yevstifeyev and Andrei Gridasov article headlined "U.S. refuses to extradite Ashot Yegiazaryan" says that the U.S. has refused to extradite former State Duma deputy from the LDPR faction; pp 1, 3 (677 words).

2. Dmitry Yevstifeyev et al. report headlined "Berezovsky's Russian debts lodged to his daughter" says that the Aeroflot airline company and Samara Region government which lost a total of 3.2 billion rubles ($95 million) due to Boris Berezovsky's frauds hope that his daughter will compensate the damage; pp 1, 3 (922 words).

5. Igor Yavlyansky and Konstantin Volkov article headlined "Sheiks ready to pay for U.S. strike against Syria" says that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has confirmed that Saudi Arabian sheikhs have offered to pay expenditures for a U.S. strike against Syria; p 7 (431 words).

8. Vitaly Sirotinin interview with Yevgeny Trofimov, coach of the Russian pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva, in which he says the IOC's threats to strip Isinbayeva of her Youth Ambassador role for supporting the Russian anti-gay law is political leverage; p 12 (600 words).

Moskovsky Komsomolets

1. Mikhail Rostovsky article headlined "Lukashenko to be dealt with via Iran?" says that amid the escalating potash scandal between Russia and Belarus documents proving that Belarus supplied weapons to Iran may be posted on the internet; pp 1, 4 (900 words).

Noviye Izvestia

1. Yuly Savina article headlined "First day of G20 summit devoted to economy" looks at the results of the first day of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg and notes that Syria has not been on the official agenda; p 2 (400 words).

Komsomolskaya Pravda

1. Dmitry Smirnov article headlined "Putin sets Strelna for Obama" analyses the first day of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg; p 2 (500 words).

2. Dmitry Smirnov article headlined "Syria left for dinner" says that President Putin has suggested the G20 leaders to discuss Syrian conflict at an official dinner, so that, the author notes, U.S. President Obama had to discuss the issue despite having canceled his meeting with Putin earlier in the year; p 2 (200 words).

2. Nikita Girin and Diana Khachatryan article titled "Authorities insuring themselves against election failure. Literally. With budget funds" rounds up various schemes being purportedly used as part of preparations for election fraud at the Sept. 8 regional elections in Russia; p 3 (500 words).

3. Andrei Kolesnikov commentary titled "Russian president manually sets sun of Russian poetry" says President Putin is still refusing to refer to protest leader Alexei Navalny by his name in public; p 5 (400 words).

4. Yuly Latynina article titled "Absolute power distorts absolutely" says President Putin is out of touch with the real state of affairs in the world; p 5 (400 words).

5. Yury Revich article titled "Web in cast-iron hands" argues that the Russian authorities are trying to introduce a system of internet content filtering that is similar to the one employed in China; p 6 (700 words).

6. Elvira Goryukhina article titled "Dear God, this is not an election — this is a joke" reports on the election campaign for Yaroslavl mayor; p 8 (750 words).

9. Leonid Nikitinsky, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council, shares his favourable impressions of the Council's last meeting with President Putin in a piece titled "Different meetings"; p 16 (350 words).